25 November 2007

Why winning is more important than having fun? -1/2

I enjoy amateur level of competition. Many mistakes will be made by the players and you see them trying hard. You can almost imagine yourselves in their shoes - playing better of course.

Recently I went to support a friend in her competition. It has a knock out system so the stakes are high. I saw how a few individual talents can lead the team to victory. I saw how the games got rough and unsporting behaviours cropped up.

Yet there's still hope for the dying flame of sportmanship among the teams of the semi-finalists. They check on opponents for injuries. They try to avoid physical contact. They don't trip each other. Nice.